Chemical cooking

If you're craving a molecular gastronomy meal of dishes such as reverse spherical cured ham croquette, hot Norway lobster gelatin, terrine of basil, white sangria in suspension, lime air and frozen parmesan air, but can't get to El Bulli in Roses, Spain, where these dishes were invented, you could attempt to make them at home with the El Bulli Texturas Minikit Sferificacion.

The kit isn't inexpensive - it's HK$1,800 - but it's cheaper than flying to Spain and eating at El Bulli (and your chances of getting a table are pretty slim anyway; the restaurant gets more than half a million requests for the 7,000 covers available each year). And you still have to provide most of the ingredients. The kit contains items you don't see in most kitchens: agar (extracted from red algae and used to make hot and warm gelatins), gluco (calcium gluconolactate, a tasteless powder, used for spherification), xantana (made from the fermentation of corn starch and used to suspend elements in liquid) and lecite (a soy lecithin-based emulsifier, used for making 'airs', which are lighter than foams).

Oliver Win, managing director of Olivier Pacific, which carries the El Bulli kit, says the unconventional techniques aren't beyond the scope of adventurous home cooks. 'It's for people who want to experiment with their cooking,' he says. 'You'd probably want to use it in small amounts - not make a whole meal [out of the techniques]. My idea would be to use it for garnishes or to decorate a plate - it doesn't replace normal cooking or the presentation of a natural product. A steak is a steak but you can serve it with garnishes and vegetables that are in unexpected shapes and textures.'

For information on the El Bulli Minikit, phone Olivier Pacific on 2868 0033.